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Main Differences - Oil & Gas Devt

This document discusses key differences between oil and gas development and provides guidance on gas projects. It covers topics such as the market requirements for gas development, product specifications around gas quality, economics of transporting gas versus oil, and efficiency of converting gas to energy. Thresholds are provided for offshore gas fields and LNG plants to be viable. Guidelines are also given around gas contracts, specifications around water, H2S, and other impurities in gas.

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Femi Dele
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65 views

Main Differences - Oil & Gas Devt

This document discusses key differences between oil and gas development and provides guidance on gas projects. It covers topics such as the market requirements for gas development, product specifications around gas quality, economics of transporting gas versus oil, and efficiency of converting gas to energy. Thresholds are provided for offshore gas fields and LNG plants to be viable. Guidelines are also given around gas contracts, specifications around water, H2S, and other impurities in gas.

Uploaded by

Femi Dele
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Main Differences – Oil & Gas Devt.

Market for Gas


 Pre-requisite for gas devt
 Price, supply & duration to be agreed
 Wide variation in price from region to region, contract to contract

Product Specification
 Product quality linked to calorific value/burning efficiency (Wobbe
Index)
 HC Dewpoint, water dewpoint (liquid dropout)
 Impurities (N2 reduces calorific value, CO2 causes corrosion with
water, H2S is toxic and corrosive)

Economics of transporting gas


 Compression costs more than pumping
 Limited transportation options
 More difficult to manage gas projects

Efficiency of turning gas into energy


 Equivalent unit of energy, 6000 scf gas to 1 bbl of oil (5.6 scf / 0.159
scm)
 Desirable fuel due to better combustion

As a guide
 Offshore fields less than 0.5 Tscf not viable (equivalent to 80 MMstb)
 10 Tscf may justify a LNG Plant (project costs typically US$10B)
 Road tanker capacity = 200 bbl (37scm)
2. Gas Contracts Specifications

Daily Contract Quantity (DCQ)


 Daily Supply, usually average over year quarters

Swing Factor
 Amount which supplier must supply over DCQ if customer so
requires (eg. Unexpected cold winter)

“Take or Pay” Agreement


 if customer fails to receive minimum quantity, customers pays
for volume anyway

Penalty Clause
 Penalty if supplier fails to deliver on DCQ and swing factor

Contract Duration
 Ease for planning
Ability to define supply quarantee to customer
Gas Contracts Specifications
Water Expressed as Water Dewpoint or Concentration
Prevents condensation of water (during transportation & distribution)
Eg Cold weather - 55 to 110 mg/sm3 (dewpoint : -10 to 0oC at 70 bar)
Warm weather 110 to 160 mg/sm3 (dewpoint : 0 to 5oC at 70 bar)
Dehydration by glycol (absorption), dessicant (adsorption),
refrigeration (condensation) with inhibition

H2S Toxic (0.1 mol % in gas kills)


Domestic gas typically specified at 0.004 mol%
Sour Gas - H2S present ; Sweet Gas - H2S absent
1 ppm smells, 10 ppm – eye waters, 100 ppm – no smell, 1000 ppm -
dead

Condensate Expressed as HC Dewpoint


Prevents condensation of liquid HC (during transportation &
distribution)
Eg Cold weather : -5 to 0oC at 70 bar)
Warm weather : 5 to 10oC at 70 bar)

Calorific Value Heat of combustion


Amount of heat upon complete combustion of a unit quantity
Expressed as MJ/sm3 or BTU/scf at certain conditions
Wobbe Index sometimes used (CV/sqrt(specific gravity)

Nitrogen Affects calorific value / wobbe index


Typically limited to 2-3%

Carbon Dioxide Affects calorific value / wobbe index


Typically limited to 2-3%

Hydrogen Not typically addressed


High commercial value if extracted ($1-1.5K per sm3 )

Oxygen Not normally present in natural gas (unless air is introduced)


Typically limited to 0.1%

Mercury Not typically addressed, but being changed


Cause corrosion of aluminium equipment (eg. heat exchangers)
Usually handled by gas buyer
Phase Envelopes
Phase Envelopes Pure HC component has single liquid/vapour equilibrium line
However, when 2 or more components are mixed, it results in a
phase envelope that lies between their individual lines, where
the heavier components are lifted up by the lighter components
and vice versa
Resultant effect is that vapour and liquid coexists in defined %
at given pressure and temperature

Critical Point Point at which all phases co-exists and it’s difficult to
distinguish between liquid and vapour (the highly compressed
gas has same density and appearance as that of the high
temperature liquid)

Dense Phase Misty region, difficult to define state

Cricondenbar Maximum pressure at which liquid and vapour can exist (Point
N)

Cricondentherm Maximum temperature at which liquid and vapour can exist


(Point M)

Retrograde Region Area inside phase envelope where liquid condenses by lowering
pressure or increasing temperature (opposite of normal
behavior)

Quality Lines Lines showing constant liquid/vapour percentages


Intersect at critical point (C)
Not evenly distributed (vapour % comes out at faster rate)

Bubble Point Curve Quality Line at 0% vapour (1st bubble released)

Dew Point Curve Quality Line at 100% vapour (1st dew condenses)

CO2 / H2S Lowers Cricondenbar


N2 Increases Cricondenbar
Hydrates

← are deposits resembling ice or compacted snow


← formed by combination of wateer and light HCs, CO2 and H2S
← collection of say, 20 water molecules linked into a lattice structure by weak
hydrogen bonds, with its inner cavity filled by guest molecules that stabilises the
structure
← molecules larger than propane generally too big to form hydrates
← grow like crystals that builds up and plugs lines/valves/orifices

Pre-Requisite
Presence of free water (say, cooling when gas is water saturated)
High Pressures
Low Temperatures
(Draw Hydrate Curve with P/T with SouthEast arc)

Note
When hydrate is formed at a particular temperature, it may only be re-dissolved at a much
higher temperature with constant pressure

Hydrate Suppression
Avoid free water formation
Dehydrate gas to lowest temperature & highest pressure conditions
Maintain temperature above hydrate formation temperature
Use Inhibitors - methanol or Glycol (MEG) – prior to chillers
← Shell uses program “Hercules” to model required pressure and temp with given
amount of inhibitors
Do not desalinate water (just as saltwater has lower freezing point)

Methanol Cheap Flammable, low flash point


Low viscosity Very toxic
Low MW High vapour pressure
Can inhibit to –100oC Difficult to regenerate

MEG Expensive High flash point (less


High viscosity flammable)
High MW Less toxic
Can inhibit to –40oC Low vapour pressure
Easy to regenerate
Glycol Contactor Operating Problems

Aromatics
 Unstaurated hydrocarbon molecule where carbon atoms form a ring
 Since unstaurated, they react readily, maybe oxidized to form organic acids
 BTEX (Benzene, Toulene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene)
Wax
Temp at which wax cyrstals starts forming
Cloud Point
Temp below which crude flow ceases
Pour Point ← Max PourPoint - when crude is preheated to 105oC
← Min Pourpoint - when crude is preheated to 45oC or 9oC
above PP
← Apparent Pourpoint - tested at ambient conditions

Factors that can increase PourPoint Value


Thermal Treatment
Dilution with lighter components / water

Why Wax Control


Precipitation of wax increases crude viscosity, thereby restricting flow (or requires more
energy)

When pipeline wall temperature is lower than Cloud Point, wax starts forming into a
layer with equilibrium of wax formation and flow erosion, thereby reducing pipeline
effective diameter, thus capacity and increases pumping energy requirement

Gelation of crude may occur if flow is interrupted (requires design for worst conditions of
anticipated cooling rate and shutdown duration)

Solidify if below Pour Point Temperature

Wax also deposited in storage tanks/vessels (several meters thick, disturbes separation
design and reduces capacity)

“Design Out” Solutions


Thermal Insulation (normally with crude pre-heating)
Heat Tracing
Crude Dilution (with kerosene, lighter HCs , sea-water, but beware of corrosion &
hydrates)
Parrafin (Wax) Inhibitors (which co-crystallises with 1st wax nuclei.. and thus must be
added before wax starts forming)

“Remedial” Solutions
Scrapping of tubes / vessels / tanks
Pigging of Flowines

Shell Swim Application


(Check out Page 14 of Manual Chemistry in Productions Operations)

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